time to stand
by kingslayers
Summary: "I do think fifteen is too young to expect people to make decisions for the rest of their life," Professor Longbottom says quietly, which she assumes is meant to be comforting but isn't, really. Her problem isn't that she doesn't know what to do with the rest of her life—her problem is that she doesn't know if anyone will support her. / Roxanne Weasley has a dream. —roxanne-centric


**written for:** the houses competition

 **house:** slytherin

 **category:** themed — discovery (self)

 **prompts:** An Underestimated Individual [Prompt/Character/Person]

 **word count:** 5000 (it took a while to cut it down and i'm so happy omg)

 **warnings** : n/a

 **notes** : it's 6:21 am and I can finally sleep ah

 **disclaimer** : disclaimed.

* * *

Roxanne Weasley has a lot of cousins. There's only one her age, though. There's only one Lucy Weasley, and Roxanne wouldn't trade her for anything in the world. Lucy Weasley is her best friend, and she is strong and independent, brave and fierce, scared of absolutely nobody and never backs down when it comes to doing the right thing.

Roxanne, on the other hand, is quiet. It isn't because she's timid—though you'd be forgiven for thinking she was—but because she doesn't see the point in getting involved. She likes art, the mechanics of muggle machinery, and being left alone, for the most part.

x

She's in Fifth Year when she realises, with complete certainty, that she wants to live in the Muggle world when she graduates.

It's not a new thought, not really; it's always been there, bouncing away in the back of her mind, but this is the first time she can remember ever explicitly thinking about it. It makes sense, though. Of all her friends and relatives, she's the least dependent on magic, and probably the least interested in it. She likes machinery—cars, specifically—and art, and whilst magic can be involved in those, she prefers it the Muggle way. She doesn't think she could ever leave the Wizarding world behind completely, because everyone she loves is part of it, but she has a feeling that other than the people, she could leave it all behind and still be happy. She's not sure any of her other relatives could.

"That doesn't look like your essay," Lorcan Scamander says from over her shoulder, but he's grinning when she glances up at him, startled.

She flicks her eyes back to her notebook—something which the kids who grew up entirely in the Wizarding World keep gaping at—which is open to a page full of sketches of people around her in the common room, proving Lorcan right.

"People-watching," she says with a shrug, before frowning at him. "What are you doing here?" She's in the Gryffindor common room, after all. Lorcan, as would be extremely obvious from his tie to anyone who happened to glance over, is a Hufflepuff.

"Looking for Lysander," he says easily, vaulting over the back of her couch to sit at the other end, where her feet are. She obligingly tucks them in underneath herself, shifting slightly to sit up better.

"He's on patrol," Roxanne informs him. Lucy and Lysander are the Gryffindor prefects for their year, which was both expected and hilarious. Expected because Lucy is a determined believer in justice and Lysander is constantly keeping Lorcan from expulsion; hilarious because Lucy would absolutely break a rule if it meant doing the right thing, and because Lysander is constantly grumpy about all the unreasonable people in his life, and hasn't stopped sighing exasperatedly since they were twelve. He's actually the wild one of the Scamander twins; he just suppresses it to keep track of Lorcan, who isn't wild, exactly—he's just very passionate about magical creatures and their rights, and also lacks common sense. It's not a great combination for avoiding trouble, so Lysander's spent most of the last five years trying to keep Lorcan from either being expelled or eaten.

As a member of a large family which includes several people who seem to think they're invincible, Roxanne has a lot of sympathy for Lysander.

"He's always on patrol," Lorcan says, disgruntled.

"He's normally with you," Roxanne corrects, rolling her eyes fondly at him. "Speaking of, what are you looking for him for?" She narrows her eyes. Normally, Lysander being with Lorcan would be the best-case-scenario for everybody in the castle, but they have an essay due tomorrow which Lysander really needs to finish and can't really afford to be distracted from.

Lorcan looks shifty. "Plausible deniability," is all he says, at which Roxanne throws her hands up.

"Okay, well, can 'plausible deniability' wait until tomorrow?" she asks. "Because if Lysander hands in another essay late, he's going to be forced to get a tutor, which, frankly, he neither needs nor has time for."

Lorcan looks vaguely abashed, but he nods. "I _guess_ ," he says dramatically, splaying himself out in a mockery of devastation, before grinning at her. "I'll be back tomorrow," he says, jumping up. "Tell Ly for me, yeah?"

He's on his way out when he suddenly turns back to her, evidently having remembered something. "Oh, Rox, by the way? Those drawings? Really good," he says, giving her a thumbs up, before turning back to the portrait door and exiting the common room. It even sounds like he's _whistling_. Roxanne shakes her head as he leaves, but there's a smile on her face too.

x

"Luce, have you seen my bra?" Biddy Finnigan calls out from their dorm's bathroom.

Lucy frowns at Roxanne, who shrugs. "Which bra?" Lucy calls back. "You've got to be more specific."

Biddy's head pops out from the door frame. " _Any_ , as long as it's cute," she specifies. "Especially the one with the blue flowers, if you can find it."

"Are you dressing up for someone?" Minnie O'Malley asks, half-hopeful and half-surprised. Minnie's the romantic in their dorm, something which they all tease her for fiercely

Roxanne has five dormmates, excluding herself. The best thing about Hogwarts, in Roxanne's opinion, was ending up living with five other girls, one of whom is her cousin and all of whom she now counts as her best friends. There's Biddy Finnigan, an aspiring actress who puts on skits in the common room and is absolutely shameless; Minnie O'Malley, a muggleborn romantic who sees the best in everything and fell in love with Quidditch the first time she watched it; Diana Chiswyck, who's been getting invites for the whole dorm to Seventh Year parties since she was fourteen because she's so tall and pretty, and who has the biggest crush on Lucy's sister Molly; Laurie Thomas, who's Gryffindor Keeper but loves football and ice hockey more than anything; and, of course, Lucy.

"Hot date?" Diana chimes in, winking at Minnie, who dissolves into giggles.

Laurie, meanwhile, has found Biddy's flower bra and throws it into the bathroom. Moments later, Biddy comes out, wearing only her cute bra and some cargo trousers that Roxanne strongly suspects she may have borrowed from Rose, who stole them from James.

"No," she says with dignity, "of _course_ not." Biddy wrinkles her nose. "Dressing up for some guy would be way less important," she says frankly. "The most important person to impress is _me_."

Diana grins at Roxanne, who shakes her head with amusement. "I hope you tell Grant Rogers that next time he compliments you on your outfit," Roxanne says.

Biddy pauses, then grins widely. "I absolutely will," she promises, looking both pleased and vaguely amused at the prospect.

Minnie, who's been sitting on the floor, comes to sit next to Roxanne on her bed, peering curiously at Roxanne's notebook.

"What'cha drawing, Roxie?" she asks.

"It's a car engine," Roxanne explains. "A diagram, anyway—I saw it in one of Dominique's old NEWT Muggle Studies textbooks over the summer."

Minnie looks surprised. "You drew that from memory?" she asks, eyes widening. "Wow."

Roxanne's cheeks heat up a little. "It's interesting," she mumbles.

Minnie catches her hand. "I didn't mean it wasn't worth knowing," she says softly. "I'm just impressed, is all. I've seen my dad fix his engine loads of times and I wouldn't have the clue how to draw it, let alone remember it from a picture in the summer."

"D'you think your dad would show me how it works?" Roxanne blurts out before she can help herself. It's just—she's tinkered with some machinery around the Burrow, and she's always enjoyed it and been able to teach herself some things, but she's never really had anyone to _learn_ from.

"Yeah, of course!" Minnie says. "You can come visit during Easter, if you want!" Minnie bites her lip suddenly. "Y'might have to stay at mine the whole time, or get Rose's Mum to bring you—someone who knows Muggle transport and stuff. We don't have a Floo or anything like that."

Roxanne grins. "I'll figure it out," she assures her, before quickly hugging her friend. "That sounds perfect!"

"Oi!" Biddy calls out from the centre of the room, where she's now wearing dark purple combat boots that are about an inch thick and holding up two shirts against her chest. "C'mon, buzzy bees, we need focus and opinions here!" She's grinning, though, and so is Roxanne when she rolls her eyes at her.

x

"Do you have any career considerations in mind?" Professor Longbottom asks at her career tracking interview. He's not unkind—he never is, except maybe with bullies, but that's probably more accurately described as disappointed sharpness—but she squirms uncomfortably anyway.

Roxanne isn't Lucy, all right? She's not timid, but her brand of quiet stability has never really lent itself towards shaking up people and taking them by surprise, which is exactly what sharing her life plans would achieve.

"I don't… really have any," she says awkwardly. She means that she doesn't really have any plans that require specific NEWTs, but she doesn't know how to say that, and his eyebrows are shooting up before she can bring herself to elaborate. She bites her lip instead.

"I do think fifteen is too young to be expecting people to try make decisions to shape the rest of their life," Professor Longbottom says quietly, which she supposes is meant to be comforting but isn't, really. Her problem isn't that she doesn't know what to do with the rest of her life—her problem is that she doesn't know if anyone will support her.

Which might not be giving her family enough credit, and she knows that's a possibility, and it's one she feels guilt about, but… Roxanne remembers her Uncle Ron mentioning once that one of Grandma's cousins was an accountant or something, and how they never spoke about him, and Roxanne can't help the clenching in the pit of her stomach. She doesn't doubt that they love her, but part of her doesn't trust that they'll support her. It's fine. Actually, it's not, but it doesn't mean it'll stop her from doing it. It just might stop her from telling anyone beforehand.

"Are you sure you don't have anything in mind? Even if you just want to ask me any questions?" Professor Longbottom questions gently.

Roxanne bites her lip. She likes Professor Longbottom, honestly, she does, but they're not particularly close. He is, however, fairly close to some of her aunts and uncles. She glances up and finds herself catching his eyes: brown and deep and unflinching, full of something like integrity.

"I'm not sure…" she starts, then bites her lip, before taking a breath and ploughing on. "I don't think I want a magical career," she says steadily, surprised at herself. She'd expected it to all come out in a rush.

Professor Longbottom blinks, clearly not expecting that, but, to his credit, he doesn't make any exclamatory noises. Instead, he leans backwards into his chair, steepling his fingers as he mulls it over.

"It's certainly doable," he says. "Depending on what sort of job you'd want, you'd need to get some equivalency paperwork from the Ministry, as well as do some Muggle-specific bridging courses—I could probably get a hold of the information for you, if you'd like, but your Aunt Hermione would know it verbatim, I'd wager." He smiles briefly. "There are other types, too—you'd still need to do at least _some_ of that stuff, to prove that you had at least a basic education, but there are some jobs which would be more manual, I gather, and which you can do specific training for."

Roxanne is rapt, and nods quickly. "I'd like—I want to learn about machinery," she says. "Car mechanics, specifically. I've tinkered around with things Grandpa's collected over the years, but… I'd like to learn it for real." She pauses, before tacking on, "I'm going to Minnie's this Easter, and she says her dad can show me some stuff."

Professor Longbottom absorbs this. "That's a start," he says with a nod. "It'd be good to get a chance to see what it's like before you commit to this—if Minnie's family can take you to an actual mechanic's, that'd be helpful, I'd imagine." He glances down at his copy of Roxanne's grades. "You'll still need to take some NEWTs and pass to get the highest basic equivalency," he says. "And I think it's probably a good idea to continue with the core ones anyway, just in case, unless there are any you object to specifically or non-core ones you'd wish to take as well. And Muggle Studies, of course. You'll need that for the equivalency."

Roxanne nods. "Core and Muggle Studies sounds good," she says.

"I'd suggest considering Herbology as well," he says. "You're on track to have the grades for it, and in the first year of NEWT studies, we look at both the magical and traditional Muggle uses of plants, so you might find it interesting." At Roxanne's nod, he smiles slightly, before adopting a brisk manner. "Now, will you see or write to your aunt any time soon, or would it be more efficient if I requested the information about that pathway for you?" he asks.

Roxanne shifts in her seat. "If you could, I'd appreciate it," she says, before pausing for several moments. "I haven't exactly… mentioned it to my family yet," she explains.

Professor Longbottom doesn't look shocked or disapproving; instead, he just nods. "I'll make sure not to mention it, then," he says with a gentle smile. Roxanne smiles back gratefully, before standing to leave. Her head is spinning with all of this new information, so much so that she nearly walks into a waiting student as she exits, but she's excited too.

x

Roxanne spends most of Easter with Minnie. She's to go to the Burrow for the last day before they're back at school, because everyone's staying there that night for a big family dinner before all the students return, but for the rest of the break, she's at free rein with Minnie and she _loves_ it.

They go to the movies with Minnie's little brothers and see something animated that Minnie claims is 'just another Pixar movie' but Roxanne thinks is magical and infinitely more impressive than things they can achieve with a swish of a wand. It's not the first time she's seen a movie—it's not even the first time she's been to a cinema, but it's certainly the first time she's been to a cinema without someone using magic for some ridiculous reason—but it's the first time that watching one has been a wholly Muggle experience, where the most important thing in the cinema is the movie that's playing. Roxanne suddenly realises that she's excited for the first time it _doesn't_ feel magical—she can't wait for a time when it's become so much part of her natural rhythm and schedule that she's not fascinated by it, but is more like Minnie, relaxing back in her seat and stealing her brothers' popcorn.

For the first time ever, the idea of living in the Muggle world actually feels _real_.

Minnie is true to her word, and her father—"call me George," he says, beaming at her as he shakes her hand—shows Roxanne the ins and outs of fixing up his truck. His brother Simon runs the local garage, and he drops Roxanne off there to observe Simon and his son, Danny. Danny's a few years older than Roxanne and Minnie and teases his cousin mercilessly when she drops by to drag Roxanne away for an ice cream break, but it's all love, and it reminds Roxanne of how her cousin James acts with all his relatives. It brings a smile to her face, as does Danny's theatrical bow of gratitude when she brings him back an ice cream too.

Simon even lets her do some minor repairs to an old Corvette he and Danny are working on in their spare time, talking her through what needs to be done and quizzing her every so often. Between her days at either the mechanic shop or with Minnie, and her nights with the O'Malleys, Roxanne's having the best Easter break of her life.

Of course, it comes to an end too soon.

"Listen, a mechanic's a dime a dozen," Simon says at the end of her last day with the O'Malleys, rubbing his hands clean of oil with a dirty rag as he does so. "We ain't anythin' special." As Roxanne opens her mouth to protest, he laughs, holding up his hands. "We ain't, but that's not the point," he says, grinning at her. "Though thanks for thinking so anyway, it's much appreciated." He winks, before continuing. "Anyway, we ain't nothin' special here, but… when you and Min finish at your fancy school, if you're ever looking for an apprenticeship or anythin', you're always welcome here, a'right?"

Roxanne can't speak for a moment, because her throat's so full of emotion, so she nods instead, ducking her head as she laughs, just in case she cries. She thinks Simon knows anyway, because he claps her on the shoulder before moving off to throw a towel at Danny to make him hurry up.

x

"What'd you guys do?" Lucy asks curiously. It's the last day of break, so Roxanne's back at the Burrow, ready for the big family dinner later that night. She arrived about an hour ago and was immediately claimed by Lucy, who dragged her up to the room they'd be sharing for the night.

Splayed beside Lucy on the latter's bed, Roxanne shrugs slightly. "Not much but also lots?" she says, laughing. "I don't know how to explain it."

Lucy grins. She and her family only arrived from Bulgaria last night, where they'd been because Uncle Percy had a week-long conference there and Aunt Audrey had decided to make a holiday of it, bringing Molly and Lucy with them.

"I know what you mean," she says. "We technically didn't do that much—not much variety, anyway—but it feels like a lot too? It felt like lots to me, but also totally relaxing, even if it probably wouldn't sound like either of those if I tried to tell someone."

Roxanne grins. "Yeah, it's like that," she says, delighted that Lucy gets it. "I spent most of my days either hanging out with Minnie or at her uncle's garage—mechanic's garage, not one attached to a house," she hastens to clarify.

"Learning to work with cars?" Lucy asks lightly. Roxanne's never explicitly told Lucy about her dreams, but she's never needed to. Lucy's always known, maybe longer than Roxanne herself.

Roxanne nods. "Luce, it was so much fun," she says. "I actually _liked_ learning it." Roxanne does decently at Hogwarts, passing all her classes at the very least, but she's never really felt _passionate_ about most of her subjects. With Simon and Danny, though, it had felt like she'd _wanted_ to learn.

Lucy shifts closer to her. "Good," she says, slotting her head comfortably into the space between Roxanne's head and shoulder. "I'm glad."

"Yeah?" Roxanne asks.

"Yeah," Lucy says. "It's not always easy to know what you want, or to enjoy it once you find it. I'm glad you've got both."

Roxanne smiles down at her cousin. "Yeah," she says softly. "Me too."

x

"So, what did you do on your break, Roxanne?" Aunt Ginny asks over dinner, as soon as Aunt Audrey finishes up recounting one of her stories from Bulgaria.

Roxanne looks up, startled, then glances at Lucy, who meets her eyes with the slightest of shrugs. _Your move, Roxie._

"I spent it at my friend Minnie's," Roxanne says, turning back to face her aunt.

Aunt Audrey tilts her head. "She's a Muggleborn, right?" she asks curiously. Roxanne imagines it's difficult for Aunt Audrey to keep track of her daughters' friends; whilst Lucy's main ones are her dormmates, Molly's the most popular girl in the school.

"Yes," Roxanne confirms.

"Ooh, a Muggleborn!" Grandpa exclaims excitedly. "What did you do, Roxanne? Did they all have their own rubber duck?"

Roxanne's dad starts laughing at the same time that Grandma shoots Grandpa a cross look. Roxanne blinks.

"I don't think any of them had a rubber duck," she says, momentarily side-tracked, before glancing once more at Lucy and taking a deep breath. "And I spent half of my time with Minnie, and the other half at the garage. We went to the movies with her brothers once as well."

Aunt Hermione glances at Roxanne. "Garage as in a mechanic's?" she asks curiously. Roxanne nods.

Uncle Ron snorts. "What? Why?" he demands.

Aunt Hermione turns to glare at him. He raises his hands in defence. "It's a _question_ , 'Mione," he says.

"They showed me about the insides of cars," Roxanne says, at a quieter volume than before. They showed her a lot more than that, and with far more specific and accurate terminology, but Roxanne suddenly doesn't want to explain it fully. The more she invests herself in talking about it, the harder the blow will be when it inevitably gets mocked. Roxanne is hard to ruffle with most things, but this _matters_ to her. She wants to protect it.

Grandpa looks enthralled by what she's said, but Hugo looks momentarily confused. "Why would you need to know that?" he asks. "You can't drive." He pauses, then eyes her speculatively. "Can you?"

"No," Roxanne says, before shrugging, suddenly wishing she was somewhere else. "They just showed me because I asked, I guess."

"Why?" Uncle Ron asks again, sounding genuinely confused this time. "Why'd you be interested in that? It's not exactly as if wizards _need_ —"

"I happen to think it's nice that Roxanne's interested in Muggle life," Aunt Hermione says, cutting her husband off.

He just rolls his eyes. "I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, Hermione," he says, sounding slightly impatient but mostly just amused. "It's just a weird niche of it, don't you think?"

"What's wrong with knowing about cars?" James asks, finally stopping his bickering with Louis to tune into the main discussion.

"D'you know anything about cars?" Fred retorts.

James shrugs, conceding the point.

"He doesn't really know much about anything," Rose mutters from across the table.

"Oi!" James says, playing at being outraged, but Roxanne can see the amusement in his eyes, as well as the smirk on Rose's face.

"See?" Uncle Ron says to Aunt Hermione, gesturing towards James as if that exchange is a winning argument.

"See what?" Aunt Ginny asks exasperatedly. "Honestly, Ron, if James doesn't know about cars, then nobody can? How did you ever close a case if you were utilising _that_ kind of logic?"

Uncle Ron glowers. "It was more about the pointlessness of knowing that sort of thing for a wizard," he retorts. When Aunt Hermione nudges him in the stomach, he amends, "Or for a witch." Aunt Hermione sighs exasperatedly.

Roxanne sinks lower in her chair, glancing at Lucy.

Lucy, who, very uncharacteristically, isn't saying anything.

Roxanne frowns. Lucy jumps into arguments at the drop of a hat and never backs down. Roxanne can't help but feel like she could use some of that right now. Still, though, Lucy remains silent, chewing her food thoughtfully as she watches the debate, not participating at all.

It bothers Roxanne, just a little bit. Just enough.

"We have _magic_ ," Uncle Ron is saying, when Roxanne stands up, her chair clattering behind her.

"Enough!" she says, slamming her hands down on the table. "I spent time at a mechanic's garage over break because I _want_ to learn about how cars work and their complexities and mechanics because I want to _be_ a mechanic. I want to make art and fix cars and I don't want to use magic to do it! I'm only sitting NEWTs so that I can qualify for the highest level of Muggle equivalency papers." She fixes the whole table with a glare. "The only thing I'm going to _miss_ about the Wizarding World is the fact that all of my relatives are part of it, and _maybe_ Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, but, honestly? Muggle ice cream is pretty bloody good!"

With that, she turns around and heads up to the room she's sharing with Lucy.

x

Within fifteen minutes, all the cousins, including Teddy, are crowded in her room.

She's sitting on her bed, leaning against her headboard, feet resting in Dominique's lap.

From the ground, James shakes his head admiringly. "I didn't know you had it in you, Rox," he admits, but he's grinning brightly, so she knows he means it like a good thing.

Lucy crawls off her bed, jumping nimbly over Teddy to do so, and climbs up next to Roxanne. "I did," she says proudly, nudging Roxanne with her shoulder as she grins.

Roxanne stares at her. "Is _that_ why you were so silent?" she asks.

Molly snorts from Lucy's bed. "Of course," she says. "As if Lucy would ever manage to keep out of an argument if she didn't have an ulterior motive."

Lucy sticks her tongue out at her sister, but she grins, shrugging at Roxanne. "Rude, but she has a point," Lucy admits.

Roxanne stares at her cousin for a moment, then hugs her tightly. "That was awful!" she exclaims into her shoulder. "I didn't mean to tell anyone and then—then—"

"Then you yelled it at Uncle Ron," Victoire says from somewhere on the floor. It sounds like she's smirking.

"That was the best part," Rose protests. "He needs to be yelled at every so often. Keeps him in line," she says sagely.

James snorts, throwing a pillow at her. "You're a punk," he says.

She flings it back. "A punk who's _right_ ," she insists. "And can kick your arse," she tacks on as an afterthought.

The room is about to descend into the chaos of a no-holds-barred pillow fight when there's a knock on the door, effectively halting the battle before it even begins.

"Can we come in?" Aunt Hermione asks.

Everyone looks at Roxanne, who nods.

"Yep!" Molly calls out irreverently as Albus shifts so the door can open.

Aunt Hermione, Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny and Uncle Ron all enter with Roxanne's parents, though they don't make it too far from the door, thanks to the crush of bodies in the room.

James, if possible, splays out even more, but the rest of the floor-dwellers shift to make a path to Roxanne's bed.

Roxanne's father is the first to speak.

"I mean, I'd have rather heard about it before you shouted it at family dinner," he begins, but he's grinning, and he winks at his daughter, coming up to sit beside her. Dominique shifts so that there's space for his legs but he shakes his head, inclining towards his wife, who sits in the free space instead. "I think it's a great idea, kiddo," he says, kissing Roxanne's forehead. "You can help me rig up more exciting Muggle items for the store too."

Roxanne rolls her eyes, but hiccoughs too. She's a bit surprised about how emotional she feels, but given all her doubts about how her family would react, it's a little overwhelming for everyone to be so _nice_. At least now that they all know where she's at, anyway. It hadn't been quite so fun before she'd yelled at them.

Her mother squeezes her hand. "We'd be proud of you no matter what," she promises. "As long as you're happy and you're trying, there's nothing more we could ask for."

"Sorry about the interrogation downstairs," Uncle Ron apologises abashedly. "I didn't mean to insult what you wanted to do," he explains.

Roxanne nods, and he smiles briefly, nodding back before slipping out the room. "There are like fifty people in there," Roxanne can hear him saying as he descends the stairs, and she chokes on a giggle.

"He really didn't mean to insult it," Aunt Hermione adds, rolling her eyes after her husband. "He's just inconsiderate at times."

"I already told her it was good she yelled at him," Rose pipes up.

Aunt Ginny laughs. "She's not wrong," she says wryly, addressing it to Roxanne. "I grew up with six older brothers—sometimes it's good for them to be yelled at," she adds with a wink, before leaving as well.

Uncle Harry and Aunt Hermione move closer, before stopping where James is splayed out.

"Move, Jamie," Uncle Harry says, gently nudging him with his foot. "We want to talk to Rox and her parents about the paperwork and systems—all that technical stuff."

"Molly's putting out the dessert," Aunt Hermione adds. "You should all go get some—preferably to eat downstairs, instead of making a mess of crumbs in poor Roxanne's room."

"Eating in the bedrooms always brings the ghoul down," Louis says in disgust. "Don't worry, we'll eat downstairs."

Lucy's the last to leave, and she hugs Roxanne again. "I knew you could do it," she whispers. Roxanne feels warm inside, because Lucy's right. Roxanne found something inside herself she didn't know existed, and she finally told them all what she wanted.

"What a lovely influx of oxygen," Aunt Hermione says dryly, breathing deeply. Uncle Harry grins.

"That was still less crowded than trying to fit three of us under the cloak for seven years," he says.

Aunt Hermione looks unconvinced, but nudges him fondly, before turning to face Roxanne, sitting herself down in the space that Lucy just vacated, Uncle Harry claiming Dominique's old spot.

"Now," Aunt Hermione says. "About these papers…"

Roxanne sits and listens intently, smiling as her parents ask questions, chiming in occasionally with some of her own, all the time thinking about how bright the rest of her life feels like it's going to be.


End file.
